Nigerian Efo Igbo Soup
Efo igbo is a Yoruba soup built around the leaves of the garden eggplant, a green with a slight bitterness that cooks tame once the leaves are washed with salt. The base is a boiled-down paste of peppers, onions and tomatoes, seasoned heavily with iru, then deepened with dryfish and ground crayfish. The leaves go in last and steam for just two minutes, so they stay green and tender.
Instructions
Wash the meat and boil it until cooked. Set it aside along with its cooking liquid if you want to use it later.
Wash the efo igbo leaves with salt to draw out their bitter taste, then rinse them.
Blend the bell peppers, onions and tomatoes together into a smooth paste.
Heat a thin layer of oil in a pot. Add the pepper paste, a generous amount of iru and some salt, and let it boil for about 12 minutes.
Add the boiled meat, the dryfish and the ground crayfish to the pot. Boil for another 7 minutes so the flavors combine.
Add the efo igbo leaves and let them steam in the pot for 2 minutes, until they are just wilted.
Remove the pot from the heat and serve the soup with rice or a swallow.
Make it personal.
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